An Indonesian secret order required total weeks-long silence from novices

Evidence

Thus it is reported of a secret order in the Moluccan Island of Ceram that the young man who seeks admittance, not only is enjoined to keep silent concerning everything he experiences on entering, but also is not permitted for weeks to say a word to anybody, not even to his family. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 8421

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• SHARE: A specific ethnographic detail — the Ceram novitiate silence vow — that would delight a reader of anthropological secrets literature.
• CANDY: A vivid, self-contained anecdote about novices forbidden to speak even to family for weeks.